Collaborative Research: What's the question? A cross-linguistic investigation into compositional and pragmatic constraints on the question under discussion

语言的最大价值在于它的意义，在于话语中所交换的信息。这个项目是一个广泛的学术努力的一部分，目的是找出这种意义是如何确定的，并确定可以从所说的内容中得出什么推论。最近关于语言意义的研究，包括四位pi在这个项目上发表的大量作品，表明句子的意义受到句子所处的语境的极大影响。具体来说，三个机构的项目团队在过去的工作中已经表明，一个句子的意义是如何受到说话者试图解决的问题的极大影响的。一个句子的意义只能通过它所发出的句子所回答的问题来完全理解，这一事实产生了一个问题，因为一个给定的话语所提出的问题通常是隐含的。因此，听众通常只能通过重现被回答的问题来完全理解一个句子的意思。要做到这一点，听者必须从许多可用的线索中进行推理，例如，话语中使用的语调，以及对说话者意图的了解。该项目的目标是开展实证和理论工作，以确定隐性问题被揭示的过程。在这个项目中进行的工作对理解人类文化和人类交流具有内在的兴趣，并且也具有重要的实际应用，例如在自然语言处理领域。为了制造能够理解和使用语言的计算机，必须确定人类理解语言的特征。该项目还为美国机构的年轻研究人员提供高级培训机会，开发可以影响广泛领域的实验和其他研究方法，并分析与具有战略价值的自然语言技术相关的语言基础问题。该项目设置在“讨论中的问题”模型的上下文中，在该模型中，上下文中包含一个动态发展的问题堆栈。这个模型的问题是要弄清楚在任何给定的话语延伸中要解决什么问题。问题的三种类型的约束将跨语言探讨：词汇的约束，例如，焦点敏感的表达和事实谓语，信息结构的约束，包括那些强加的语调和裂缝结构，和上下文的约束，如Gricean原则。为了实现这一目标，这三家机构的团队在之前的工作中共同开创了扩展方法：混合实验研究、基于语料库的自然话语研究和跨语言实地调查。开发工作以英语和巴拉圭语Guaraní （Tupí-Guaraní）为先导，并对其他语言进行选择性工作，以测试特别相关的工作方面，包括K‘iche’和Kaqchikel（都是玛雅语），匈牙利语（乌戈尔语）和他加禄语（南岛语）。在整个项目中，将重点放在数据收集方法的发展上，这些方法适用于理论上未受过训练的母语人士

The greatest value of language resides in its meaning, in the information that is exchanged in discourse. This project is part of a broad scholarly effort to find out how that meaning is determined, and to identify what inferences can be drawn from what is said. Recent research on meaning in language, including much published work by the four PIs on this project, shows that the meaning of a sentence is dramatically affected by the context in which the sentence is uttered. Specifically, the three-institution project team has shown in past work how the meaning of a sentence is greatly affected by what question the speaker seeks to address. The fact that a sentence meaning can only be fully grasped in terms of the question the uttered sentence answers creates a problem because the question addressed by a given utterance is typically implicit. So, often a listener can only fully understand the meaning of an uttered sentence by recreating the question that was answered. To do this, the listener must reason from many available clues, for example the intonation used in the utterance, and what is known of the speaker's intentions. The goal of this project is to conduct empirical and theoretical work which will identify the process by which implicit questions are revealed. The work to be undertaken in this project is of intrinsic interest in understanding human culture and human communication, and also has significant practical applications, for example in the field of Natural Language Processing. To build computers that can understand and use language, the features that inform human language understanding must be identified. The project also offers advanced training opportunities for young researchers at US institutions, develops experimental and other research methodologies that can impact a broad range of fields, and analyzes a foundational problem in language which is related to strategically valuable natural language technology. The project is set in the context of a Question Under Discussion model in which the context incorporates a dynamically evolving stack of questions. The problem for this model is to figure out what question is addressed by any given stretch of discourse. Three types of constraint on the question will be explored cross-linguistically: lexical constraints contributed by, for instance, focus sensitive expressions and factive predicates, information-structural constraints, including those imposed by intonation and cleft constructions, and contextual constraints, such as Gricean principles. This goal is pursued by expanding methodologies which the three-institution team has jointly pioneered in previous work: a mix of experimental research, corpus-based studies of naturally occurring utterances, and cross-linguistic fieldwork. The development effort is spearheaded with English and Paraguayan Guaraní (Tupí-Guaraní) and selective work is performed on other languages to test aspects of the work that are particularly germane, including K'iche' and Kaqchikel (both Mayan), Hungarian (Ugric) and Tagalog (Austronesian). Throughout the project, there will be an emphasis on the development of data-collection methods appropriate for use with theoretically untrained native speakers